The Long Rumored Actor Who Won’t Play Cannonball In New Mutants

Now that New Mutants is officially scheduled and preparing to shoot this summer, official news about the next X-Men franchise entry is beginning to trickle in. Earlier today, it was finally confirmed that Anya Taylor-Joy and Maisie Williams will play Magik and Wolfsbane, respectively, and these are just two of the heroes who will lead the blockbuster. More casting news is sure to follow in the weeks ahead, but there's one actor who definitely won't be coming aboard. Despite a report from last November saying he was in contention, Nat Wolff will not appear as Cannonball.

After debunking that James McAvoy would reprise Professor X in New Mutants, The Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit tweeted out that Nat Wolff won't be involved with the movie either, saying the following:

It's unclear if Nat Wolff ever came remotely close to playing Sam Guthrie, a.k.a Cannonball, in New Mutants, as last year's report merely said he was being "eyed." Wolff previously worked with New Mutants director Josh Boone on The Fault in Our Stars, so it's certainly plausible that he was being seriously considered at one point. But even so, those of you who were intrigued at the idea of Wolff as Cannonball should excise that from your mind. Those of you who are Wolff fans can see him later this year as in Netflix's Death Note movie and Home Again.

Introduced to the comics in 1982, Cannonball was one of the founding members of the original New Mutants team, and he's also been part of the X-Men and X-Force. His special power is being able to generate thermo-chemical energy, which he can then use to propel his body forward like a rocket and generate a "blast field" to protect him from harm. Outside of the printed page, Cannonball's only major media appearances have been as a minor character in the '90s X-Men animated series and X-Men: Evolution, as well as being an unlock able character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (the PSP version) and Marvel: Avengers Alliance.

So far Anya Taylor-Joy and Maisie Williams are the only confirmed actors for New Mutants, but the main characters have already been announced Along with Magik, Wolfsbane and Cannonball, the team will include Moonstar and Sunspot. An alien named Warlock will also reportedly appear, and at the same time the Nat Wolff Cannonball rumor came out, it was reported that the young mutant superheroes will battle Demon Bear. Since James McCoy's Professor X won't appear in New Mutants after all, it's unclear whether this movie will be set in the past like the past three main X-Men movies or if it will be a present day adventure.